Nipah Outbreak: More Than A Dozen Dead, Health Officials Warn It Could Cause Global Epidemic

Another possible outbreak of a major virus. The World Health Organization says the Nipah spreading through a state in southwest India could cause a
global epidemic. Not familiar with this one. Will have to research to see if it is airborne.

At least 13 people have died in India after an outbreak of a rare disease that health officials warn could cause a global epidemic.

Emergency measures have been imposed across the southwestern state of Kerala following the emergence of the nipah virus, which causes flu-like
symptoms leading to an agonising brain-swelling condition known as encephalitis.

Those afflicted by the disease, which has a mortality rate of 70% and has no vaccine, can also be sent in to a coma.

Health experts have been flown over to help contain the virus, which is listed alongside ebola and zika as one of eight priority diseases the World
Health Organisation believes could cause a global epidemic.

Local media reports that close to 200 patients in Kozhikode and Malappuram are receiving hospital treatment, with 26 under observation and three under
intensive treatment.

Nipah is on the World Health Organization’s priority list of emerging diseases that could cause a global pandemic, alongside Zika and Ebola.

Virologists who have studied Nipah’s behavior in animals think that in humans, it initially targets the respiratory system before spreading to the
nervous system and brain. Most patients who die succumb to an inflammation of blood vessels and a swelling of the brain that occurs in the later
stages of the disease.

Bats can also transmit Nipah to pigs and other livestock, which can then pass the infection onto humans. And humans can spread the virus through
saliva and possibly other bodily fluids. One victim in the latest outbreak was a 31-year-old nurse who had been treating Nipah patients.

All animal samples, including those from bats, cattle, goats and pigs from Kerala, sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal
Diseases, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, were negative for Nipah, said animal husbandry officer A. Mohandas.

The department was now collecting samples of fruit bats from Perambra, the suspected epicentre of the infection and nearby areas, Mohandas said.

Separately, tests run on dead bats in Himachal Pradesh were negative for Nipah, an official there said.

The dead bats were discovered on the roof of a school and had triggered a new Nipah scare last week.

Nipah virus was identified in 1998, when it caused an outbreak of neurological and respiratory disease on pig farms in peninsular Malaysia,
resulting in 257 human cases, including 105 human deaths and the culling of one million pigs.[17][125] In Singapore, 11 cases, including one death,
occurred in abattoir workers exposed to pigs imported from the affected Malaysian farms. The Nipah virus has been classified by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention as a Category C agent.[126] The name "Nipah" refers to the place, Kampung Baru Sungai Nipah in Port Dickson, Negeri
Sembilan, the source of the human case from which Nipah virus was first isolated.[127][128]

It doesn’t appear to be an airborne virus. However, it appears to by mutating at an extremely rapid pace. Considering that the disease was not
identified in 1998, by 2005 acute respiratory complications that had not been seen in human cases started becoming prevalent so it’s very likely
that it was, in those cases at least, transmitted via droplet dispersal. In other words, sneezing aided in spreading a deadly virus with high
mortality rates. Further videnfe if this came in 2005 when 12 people were infected by drinking date palm juice tainted with the saliva or feces of
fruit bats. Oh yeah... 11 of those 12 died.

Going back a little, there were a number of outbreaks in Bengal and Eastern India in 2001,2003 and 2004 and the timing seems to indicate that it is
seasonal and the majority of people who contracted the disease did so from direct contact and were health care providers in the hospitals treating the
initial wave of patients and the family/friends who visited the patients in the hospital.

It ha a mortality rate that aside from a few outbreaks, givers at 67% I’m not sure what oritectivenoriticols were in place at the hospitals where
health care workers and visitors also caught Nipa but in 2004 a rickshaw driver who transported a patient to the hospital also became ill and that
would indicate a very small window of contact was all that was necessary to transmit the virus from one individual to the next. That’s a little
frightening to me and explains why the WHO and CDC have listed it as a category 3 virus meaning it has high potential for use as a biological agent
because of its high mortality and the potential for worldwide endemic because in 2009, RNA sequences of three novel viruses in phylogenetic
relationship to known henipaviruses were detected in African straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) in Ghana. It was the first time a phylogenetic
relationship, which shows how far the virus can potentially spread, was discovered outside of Asia and Australia. There are still so many unknowns
regarding this class of viruses that to me at least; it’s a far more frightening possible outcome than a large scale Ebola outbreak.

Look at the example I mentioned regarding the severe respiratory complications. Is it really a rapid mutation rate as was (despite the calculated
rate of mutation not exactly supporting it) ? It was it an unknown, deadlier strain? Again, I’m not sure which is scarier as neither scenario bodes
well if an infected person makes it into an international flight. That puts literally 1000’s if people’s life’s in danger before the plane
leaves the tarmac from the people checking in your luggage to the TSA agents, everyone in line at the security checkpoints the lady at the magazine
stand, the people in line when you get something to eat before the flight and then all of the passengers and crew.

The populations of Indian and Africa are encroaching onto previous wild and untouched land. Every now and again some people decide to cut down trees,
and as they do so, they'll come into contact with animals, catch and eat bush meat as well as tainted fruit that's already been nibbled. Maybe these
animals entered into a symbiotic relationship with these viruses in order to protect their colonies. Some human tribes were known to build special
mosquito breeding pots and hang them from trees as a way of preventing rival tribes from entering their lands.

You make a good point, but we have to be able to learn about any new symptoms and changes to what ever at that time they are placing warnings on. I
don’t have an answer but yes we shouldn’t send people in and out but like I said we need certain info. But I guess you could get the same info
from robots....Meet T3

It definitely has the potential. Particularly if the version that is associated with respiratory distress is a previously unknown strain. It would be
more stable in that scenario than if respiratory complications are result of a rapidly mutating version.

Could someone get a sample cultivate it and set it free at an airport?.
Like twelve monkeys?.

It’s hard to say definitively yes or no unfortunately. Nipah has only been known about since 1998
And there are far more unknowns than there is definitive knowns which to me, makes it a pretty frightening prospect. It could turn out to be overblown
fear mongering because of how little is really know at this point. In ten years we may find that it’s ease of transmission and high mortality rate
have got more to do with the sanitation, medical care and local customs of the areas where outbreaks occur. One outbreak was traced to people drinking
raw date palm sap that was tainted by bats (either guano or saliva).

How long before you show symptoms?.

As soon as a few days and as long as 2 weeks. Some people are infectious and show no symptoms or symptoms that appear to be something more benign,
until encephalopathy sets in which can be as soon as 24-48 hours. But that timeframe is based on people who are symptomatic. It’s the encephalopathy
that does the major damage but it’s kind of a no brainer that swelling of your brain is never a sign of good things to come.

It’s the large number of unknown variables and the potential for the virus to spread quickly and easily across a wide range of habitats that makes
it a frightening prospect. Then factor in the variable mortality rates... early outbreaks had mortality as low as 10%. Others more recently as high as
92%. The sample sizes are small at the moment. The 92% fatality outbreak was 11 dead of 12 infected so it’s really hard to make concrete
determinations at this point unfortunately. Plus, there are no treatments for it. All that can be done is palliative/comfort care and hope for the
best. I’m not a fan of those odds!

Outside of host, in fruit juice, 3 days have been seen. In date sap there are reports of 7 days. And you can get it when preparing a body for burial
which guessing where this spread is a rather short amount of time (1 or 2 days but it did not specifically say in the article).

It is in white cells (leukocytes) and there can be post mortem lesions containing the virus. That is where direct contact is thought to happen
(slaughtered animals, pigs and horses in the article), tainted meat, infected people.

What is worse, is it has been seen in other species that humans live with (when they too eat infected meat), cats and dogs.

viruses can't survive without living cells to utilize for replication and die very quickly. HIV for example can survive up to 6 days exposed in the
open air if infected fluids are spilled but it is in such negligible amounts that it is rendered effectively inert because of the low concentrations.
With Nipah, the most effective way to contain the spread of further transmission is isolation from infected pigs, bats or people. The 1998-1999
outbreak was halted once protective equipment to isolate people from the infected pigs was put into place as well as the culling of nearly 1 million
pigs in the region where the infections originated. The only positive with Nipah is that the only wildlife reservoirs testing positive are pigs and
specific species of bats. Here is a paper discussing transmission in humans that gives a
little more insight. As always, don't take the word of random people on a conspiracy site! Always look up as much information as you can find. Having
been identified less than 20 years ago (the first outbreak was in September of '98) there are still far too many unknown variables with this newly
classified genus of viruses but the paper I linked and cited wsill give you a good starting point for better information.

Anytime man. Always happy to provide any information I can come across to help others get the proper answers they seek. Sometimes that means adding
a link or 2 afternky rant to support what I’m saying but a little light reading never killed anyone. Not that I know of at least.

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